Policy and Procedures for Determining Support for Conferences 

THE SSA FUNDING APPLICATION TEMPLATE CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE.

Background 

The Society is a charitable organisation funded from the income generated by the journals Addiction and Addiction Biology and from investments. Its main aims are to enhance the study of addiction and support and expand the membership of the Society. The Society holds an annual meeting and conference in November of each year and this is the main focus of our meetings and conference activities. However the Society also co-hosts and supports selective additional meetings

Policy for Supporting Conferences

The Society specifically aims to co-sponsor high quality scientific conferences which 

• Bring together researchers and practitioners
• Support the discussion and implementation of evidence based policies
• Explore emerging theories or addiction related problems

The Society does not (normally) provide grants for conferences.

Criteria for Support 

1. The Society will only act as the co-sponsor for a conference.
2. One or more members of the Society’s Executive to be involved in the planning and execution of the meeting or conference.
3. The Society will not co-sponsor any meeting which has any alcohol or tobacco industry links.
4. Support can not be considered until a full proposal has been submitted including a full financial plan. The Society’s criteria for providing support will be based on the confidence in this proposal to result in a successful conference. We would normally expect the income from conferences to meet all expenses. If the conference does better than break even, the surplus should be used to reimburse the original outlay from the Society.
5. The Society and its journals will provide a display at any conference supported.
6. Conference organisers should commit themselves to provide a short report on the outcome of the conference.

Procedures 

1. Proposals for any open conferences can be made by members of the Executive or members of the Society who should initially contact the Meetings Secretary of the Society.
2. The proposal should contain:

1. A description of the conference and contents
2. Size and type of audience expected
3. Full financial plan and financial arrangements
4. Role and outputs for the SSA

and should be sent initially to the Meetings Secretary

1. The Meetings Secretary will, with the help of other Executive Officers, namely the President, Treasurer and Members’ Secretary assess the application against the criteria set out in the policy. Meetings of this group are held in March, June, September and December each year.
2. The role of this group is to:

1. ensure the applicant(s) has supplied sufficient detail as set out in the policy document
2. have the power to reject proposals that do not meet the criteria set out in the policy
3. forward proposals which meet the criteria with a recommendation for acceptance/rejection to the next Executive meeting.

Executive meetings are normally held in November, March and July of each year

1. Given the decision of the Executive the applicants should be informed of decisions within one week of the Executive meeting, and if not already decided nominate a member of the Executive act as a liaison with the conference organisers.
2. The liaison Executive Member would be expected with the conference organiser to provide a full report of the conference, including a summary for the web pages and financial record. This report to be presented to the Executive.

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